By Tamara Scully, NODPA News contributing writer
L-R: David Glover, daughter Laura Easter, son James Glover outside their milking parlor
The financial aspect of making money in the Canadian milk market differs from that in the United States. And the Canadian government’s requirements for organic certification and rules governing organic production differ from those in the United States, too. But cows are cows and crops are crops, and the basics of successful organic dairy production don’t change much across the Canadian border. Here’s a look at one former conventional family Canadian dairy farm that transitioned to organic in 2015, providing insight into the dynamics of milking cows - conventionally and organically - across our northern border.
Located in Warkworth, Ontario, Roaming Valley Farm is owned and operated by the Glover family - father David, who farms alongside his son, James, and daughter Laura. They are longtime dairy farmers, but newer converts to organic dairy farming. David has been farming for half of a century, while his children have been doing so for about twenty years. They currently farm as a partnership, but are in the process of incorporating.
The partners divide their daily work, with David making the total mixed ration daily, and doing the field work - including selecting crops and calculating acreage for each. James is in charge of breeding the cows, along with the daily barn chores of scrapping the alley and cultivating the bedding pack. He also performs field work, corn scuffling and bale wrapping duties. Laura works on the daily milking along with the employees, keeps the books and industry-related paperwork, is responsible for treating any animal health concerns, and is in charge of all the grazing decisions, pasture set-ups and animal moves.
Laura’s husband, Troy Easter, helps out with maintenance and as a summer driver. Two milkers - a neighbor and a part-time high school student - plus two other part-time drivers during hay season round out the farm’s workforce.
“It takes three hours for two people to milk, scrape alleys, cultivate the pack and feed calves,” Laura said, which doesn’t include the manpower and hours to grow the feed crops, feed the cows, breed the cows, manage the books and oversee the daily operations.
With 600 owned acres, and 300 rented ones, the herd of 150 milking head grazes approximately 120 pasture acres, and is fed a homegrown TMR of alfalfa baleage, corn silage and high moisture corn. Additional corn - both grain and silage - above what the herd will need is sold to the market. The land is very hilly, and an additional 30 pasture acres are just a bit too far for the milking herd. Dry cows and heifers graze these pastures in two separate groups, being moved once per day, while the milking herd travels up to 15 minutes from the barn to access their furthest pasture. Most of the rented acreage is leased from newcomers to the area, who are seeking to have their land managed without chemical inputs.
The cows in this herd are mixed breeds, consisting of Holstein, Jersey, Fleckvieh, Montbeliard and Aryshire genetics. They breed with purchased full-bred bulls, but do also use some artificial insemination, selecting primarily for legs and feet. James manages the AI breeding, used on the milk cows, which are also bred by bull.
“We have always run pure bred bulls so each cross is at least 50 percent pure,” Laura said. “We are an open herd, buying in the bulls, but we haven't bought any cows since 2019. We have never found purchased animals have the vigor required to keep up with the intense grazing schedule we keep.”
The milking herd grazes fresh pasture twice per day during the spring and summer months. The grazing season here typically begins in May and ends in September. Milking is at 5am and 4pm in the swing 12 Dairymaster pit parlor, which was installed in 2008 while still milking conventionally. The cows are turned out immediately following milking, and return to the barn at noon. Once the evening milking is complete, the cows are then are put back onto fresh pasture.
Pastures on the farm all have single strand perimeter fencing, and they move the cows using portable reels to cross fence grazing paddocks, both in front of and behind the cows. They run one-inch water lines to a water trough, which is moved along with the cows. They are concerned about extra wear around the trough, and have been seeking to remedy this.
“We talk about large holding tanks to feed water troughs instead of pipeline,” Laura said. They’ve also considered trying water tanker trucks to haul it out, or possibly a tractor and a trailer. “I worry about mud when it’s wet - getting large heavy equipment like that into some of the pastures. Filling water tanks would also take water pressure away from the cows in the barn. It’s all logistics and the land and how to balance it. When I don't know what to do, or am unsure if the new idea is better than the old, we just keep doing the same thing.”
The pasture forages are a mix of things, which have changed over the year as they’ve experimented. They do reseed pastures regularly, and plan on trying a solid field of perennial rye when one of the wetter pastures is next ready for renovation.
They’ve tried annual rye, as a cover crop planted in the fall, Laura said, but “often we aren't able to get on the land in time to graze it while it’s most desirable for the cows in the spring. We also plant sorghum and have had much better luck with the cattle cleaning it off because it is grazed later in the summer when the land is drier. We have re-seeded with alfalfa as a part of the mix because the production is fantastic on it, and on some of our dry hills it’s the only thing getting any moisture. However, grazing it has to be managed very well. When on alfalfa we always make sure they are full going into it and the stand is dry.”
No matter the forage, the pastures receive 20 - 40 days of rest following grazing, depending on rainfall and regrowth rates. Laura uses her phone to keep notes on when the cows enter and leave each pasture. She moves the cows after “eyeballing” the forages, and taking into account the number of cows grazing, and leaving one-third to one-half of the forage height in the pasture for regrowth.
The dry cows and heifers receive 100 percent of their dry matter intake from pasture during the grazing season, while the milk cows range between 30 and 50 percent DMI, varying with the season. They are fed, year-round, a total mix ration of alfalfa baleage, corn silage, and some high moisture corn in a TMR mixer. Depending on pasture forage, they sometimes take the grain out of the mix. The same ingredients are part of the non-grazing season TMR. All of the animals additionally receive Redmond Natural Trace Mineral Salt, and dry cows and the milking herd get a custom mineral mix, formulated based on the feed samples they take every year. They grow all of their own feed.
“We don't use a nutritionist,” Laura said. “When you only have three ingredients it doesn't seem necessary. Getting better quality feed is the most important thing and that is managed in the field, not on paper!”
They do often take a first cutting of hay off some of the pastures if they can’t graze fast enough, leaving the second growth for grazing. Aside from hay ground, the farm grows about 200 acres of corn, for grain and for silage. Extra of both are sold as a cash crop.
“We still have some corn in storage from last year at an organic elevator. We held on to it hoping for a better price this summer. It’s not. The elevator owner told us the price has dropped because so many organic chicken barns in the United States have had to cull for avian flu, so the demand for organic corn is down,” Laura said.
Their fed did change when converting to organic. The ingredients they’d used conventionally are too expensive to purchase organically. They have tried to feed organic soy, with poor health results for the herd. They are therefore limited to the feed that they can grow on the farm. While milk production has been reduced from their prior conventional production, the cows are much healthier, with increased longevity.
“Before we went organic we fed distillers grain, soy bean meal, and might have fed palm fat. There are all kinds of additives conventional farmers (can) feed to enhance milk production,” Laura said. “The organic version of this is financially out of our league so we only feed what we grow. Except for those times we tried buying in organic soy, and it only broke even.”
Average milk production per cow is 15 - 25 kilograms - or approximately 33 - 55 pounds - per day. Components, on a 12 month average, are: butterfat 4.46 percent; protein 3.38 percent; and other solids 5.81 percent.
A bedded pack barn with a scrape alley and a feed alley in the middle serves as home to the cows. The barn was pre-existing, and they have not had the option to start new, but to use what they have, and add on to it. The design isn’t optimal for their operation for several reasons, Laura said. The cows always all choose to be together on the same side of the alley, and this likely contributes to their higher somatic cell counts.
The bedded pack is cultivated once a day when the cows are on pasture, and twice per day in the winter. The alley is scraped twice per day, and - along with the wash waster from the parlor and the milk house - gets gravity fed into the manure pit. They’d require a second manure pit if they put in stalls instead of the bedded pack, and there are environmental concerns near the site of the barn, making approval questionable and the process daunting.
Calves are housed in small individual hutches, and are moved to group pens of six, with a milk bar, by one month of age. Calves are fed bulk tank milk, the odd high somatic cell count cow milk, and left-over colostrum. Laura adds a bit of organic apple cider vinegar and homeopathic scour nosodes into the milk. Calves also get free choice hay and some grain.
Calving is year-round, due to the quota system which requires that production be kept consistent. Their target is to have 10 -15 cows calving each month, keeping between two and four calves per month as replacements.
When calves are four months old, they move to open-faced loafing style wood huts, and are trained to the electric fence. By six months of age, the heifers are on pasture during the grazing season. In the non-grazing months, heifers are housed in open front loafing sheds, which have open access to their fenced yard. They are fed free choice baleage, salt and mineral.
The dry cows are housed separately, and separated into two groups. “During non-grazing seasons, we house far-off dry cows in a coverall down the road at my house. They are fed free choice baleage, salt and mineral. They have open access to this at all the times,” Laura said. “Close-up dry cows are in an older barn adjacent to the milk cows. They get fed dry hay and left over TMR, salt and mineral.”
The decision to transition wasn’t an abrupt one. After David traveled to New Zealand in 2006, the farm began grazing their cows. By 2011, the Glovers realized that they needed to drastically change the way they were grazing. After touring Kornel Schneider’s farm, which was then a grass-based dairy and chicken farm in Eastern Ontario, they opted to begin to make changes, increasing pasture to include all ages.
“We decided to go all in and expand our grazing land so we could keep going all summer. At this time we also expanded all our pastures, so we had all dry cows and heifers over six months of age on rotational pasture,” Laura said. “Only a year later we decided we would start the transition to organic.”
At that time, the premium for organic milk was stronger than it is now, Laura said. Along with the premium, which was $0.40 per liter at the time, there were incentive days from Dairy Farmers of Ontario for organic milk over and above farm quota. In 2024, they are receiving $0.25 per liter premium on top of their base price.
The farm required four years to transition to organic production. Three years were need to transition the land from conventional management practices, while the fourth year was needed to transition the herd, which was required to have one year of being fed exclusively on certified organic pasture and feed.
The Canadian organic food system leaves much to be desired, in Laura’s opinion. The organic certification process, along with government support of organic farming, isn’t optimal either. Some of the issues of concern involve the lack of an organic market, poor promotion of organic foods, inadequate organic veterinary training, and lack of access to homeopathic remedies.
“There isn't a strong organic market for anything in Canada including meat. Only the big guys get their meat sold in grocery stores. If you want to buy local organic meat, you have to source the farm or producer and learn their practices and buy direct,” Laura explained. “We sold meat and eggs for eight years and the biggest road block is that there aren't any certified abattoirs, and it can't be marketed organic unless it was killed in an organic certified abattoir.”
Bob calves are sold into the conventional market, which currently is high, after being quite low. “Right now the bob calf market is at an all-time high, compared to a couple years ago where you might only get $25 (Canadian) for a 100 pound calf. Now we average $1,000.00 per calf. Some really hearty 120 pound calves have sold for $1500.00 (Canadian)” she said.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, organic sales were robust, as the government provided subsidies that many people used to purchase organic dairy. Today, that pandemic relief money is long gone, and organic milk sales are down. Processors do not advertise organic dairy. Dairy Farmers of Ontario, a government body, will not do so, and farmers are not in control of how milk is - or isn’t - promoted. This ties into the quota system, and the lack of industry competition.
The milk market in Canada is on a quota system, so there is very little competition. But that philosophy extends to other systems as well, and isn’t always advantageous.
“We have enjoyed a steady system without too much variability. It is the Canadian way: not much competition, and safe,” Laura said. “The lack of competition in Canada is seen across the business world from cell phone companies to the quota system and organic certifying bodies.”
While currently certified with Pro-Cert, there is only one other certifier for the Eastern region of Canada. Laura has filed an official complaint against some of the practices of Pro-Cert, but has yet to find out if the other certifier also requires the same administrative fees.
“The biggest drawback is that the people looking over papers and doing inspections...have no practical experience,” Laura said. “The latest thing they have implemented is an administrative fee of $50 if you have over 10 inputs listed for your farm. “Anyone that manages a farm with animals knows the ‘just in case’ items are what save lives on the weekend or the middle of the night. They aren't saying we can't have stuff on hand: we just have to pay a fee to do it,”
Those inputs include the iodine teat dips, salt, minerals and detergents for washing. Apparently, the limit of 10 items is meant to discourage organic farmers from treating these items as routine practices.
“The outrageous restrictions with Pro-cert is off the charts,” Laura said. “I feel like it’s the kind of stuff to make farmers lie and I don't want that.”
The rules for the use of antibiotics in animals are different in Canada. Animals can be treated twice per year with antibiotics, and afterwards the milk can go back into the bulk tank, as long as a withdrawal period of 10 times that on the label has been observed.
While that option exists, Laura has much more trust in homeopathy, She has taken it upon herself to learn homeopathy, and is astounded by the results they’ve had. Some of the issues which Laura has successfully treated via homeopathic remedies and treatments include: mastitis, retained placentas, pneumonia and scours.
“I have cured clinical mastitis and chronic mastitis both with different remedies. In March of 2022, I made a basic remedy for all the cows and dosed them once per week for a month. Our somatic cell count dropped from 450,000 to 250,000 in that time period,” she said. “If a cow is really bad and I have done everything with homeopathy we will use antibiotics but that cow is usually on a cull list by this point. Antibiotics are a last resort, and don't always work anyway.”
The only vaccine used is on the cows for calf scours. If a calf is on the ground it gets homeopathic nosodes for many other scour related diseases. Laura has found pneumonia to be the most difficult illness to treat organically, especially when it isn’t detected early. Coccidiosis has been a challenge during the last couple of years, and she’s had to resort to using Baycox™ as a prevention and Amprol for those that get really ill.
“I know there is a homeopathic nosode for this in the United Kingdom, but the pharmacies won't ship it into Canada,” she said. “In 2021 I did an online workshop put on by HAWL (Homoeopathy At Wellie Level is a non-profit organisation run by veterinary surgeons and homeopaths, who teach the responsible use of farm homeopathy) in the United Kingdom on animal homeopathy on the farm, and found it to have been tremendous in treating all the ailments. We jokingly call it voodoo because it’s hard to believe a few little pellets can turn a cow from near death to full recovery in a matter of hours or days!”
Laura recently sent fecal samples for worms into the laboratory. She wants to log the numbers to compare the results before and after using homeopathy, and hopefully will have these available to share at the NODPA Field Days in September.
“There is zero training or direction from any governing body or institution in Canada for organic animal veterinary care. There is a real lack of knowledge and sharing of resources for organic health care for animals in Canada,’ Laura said. “The powers that be complain about the antibiotic resistant bugs in hospitals and blame it on the overuse of antibiotics in animals. Homeopathy is a very useful tool in lowering the use of antibiotics on farms - but they don't want to hear it or even consider that. The big pharma machine makes too much money off it so it doesn't change.”
One of the biggest changes in animal management has been in cow reproduction. Long before going organic, they had stopped injecting hormones for estrus synchronization every two weeks, and switched to a veterinarian that wasn’t promoting such contrived and controlled breeding.
“I know lots of farms that manage that way because it’s easy. The breeder follows the vet and they have it set up like a well-choreographed dance. The farmer doesn't have to look after anything,” Laura said. But, “there is homeopathy for that and I wish conventional farmers could know this information. I could talk about homeopathy on the farm all day.”
They do use a veterinarian, but not for much, and much less often than when conventional. Their veterinarian bills are significantly lower, and cow health is exponentially better. They pregnancy check only once a month now, not twice as with conventional management. The vet visits only for that, plus any emergency health situations.
Longevity has increased, and hoof trims are now only needed once per year. They’ve eliminated a chronic strawberry foot problem since going organic. It rears up only if they feed soy, and between the cost of organic soy - which they can’t grow on their own farm - and the foot issues it causes, they are better off without it.
Laura is an avid supporter of homeopathy, and hopes to educate others and focus on this aspect of animal health in the future. “I find it a very rewarding practice and day dream about getting a diploma and practicing it extensively for animals when I retire from daily farm work,” she said.
Laura and Troy Easter can be reached at 138 Honey Line, Warkworth, Ontario, Canada K0K 3K0, 1-705-653-7622, roamingvalleyfarm@gmail.com
